This invention relates to a labor saving, high speed, high volume liquid filling machine for larger containers that are to be palletized for shipment. Typically, most pallets of product are loaded to about 2,000-3,000 pounds, more or less, as would readily be handled by a forklift pallet moving and handling device. Typically, most shipping pallets are designed to be loaded two abreast in a commercial shipping vehicle, be it a truck, or a sea shipping container, with the maximum container or truck weight topping out at around 40,000 pounds, more or less. Assuming then, a liquid product with a specific gravity of 1.2, or 10 pounds per gallon, a pallet could contain 40-60 five gallon containers, each weighing 50 pounds, or 80 to 120 two and one half gallon containers, each weighing 25 pounds, or four 55 gallon drums, per pallet weighing 2,200 pounds, each assumption, having to handle, typically with labor, previously fill containers, represents a formidable, costly and laborious handling task.
Liquid filling machines are already known that efficiently fill containers, filled and weighted to then be handled in a separate process of palletization, but this invention combines both processes, improving on both aspects, by mass filling 16-25 containers, on a pallet tier simultaneously, which have been placed there on their empty weight, in less time than it typically takes to fill that same amount of containers, by conventional means, and by eliminating any further handling of these filled containers.
The present invention provides that a smaller labor force be required to package and ready for shipment, palletized liquid containers, at a lower cost. This is accomplished with the present invention by the described machine that maneuvers a pallet of empty light weight containers, tier by tier, in and out of the machine, filling all of them simultaneously and accurately, with a prescribed amount of fluid, until the desired number of tiers, and/or weight is achieved, all in a labor saving process.